The Italian treasury sold 8 billion euros, or $10.6 billion, of six-month bills priced to yield 6.504 percent, up more than 3 percentage points from the 3.535 percent it paid to sell similar debt on Oct. 26. It was the highest interest rate Italy had to pay to sell such debt since August 1997, according to Bloomberg News.

The major Wall Street indexes were higher most of the session. But at the close of trading, which was three hours early because of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 0.27 percent to 1,158.67, and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 25.61 points, or 0.23 percent, to 11,231.94. The Nasdaq composite index lost 0.75 percent.

Moody’s cut Hungary’s credit rating to Ba1 from Baa3, one notch into noninvestment territory, and said it would continue reviewing the debt for further downgrades. The ratings agency cited its doubts about whether the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban could bring the country’s finances into order at a time of fading economic growth and when the risks of an external shock from the European crisis appears high.

Hungary, which maintains its own currency, the forint, said last week that it would turn to the International Monetary Fund for financial “insurance” to avoid precisely such a downgrade.

It was the second debt-rating shock in two days. On Thursday, Portugal, which is a euro member, had its debt rating cut to junk by Fitch Ratings.

In Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index, a barometer of euro zone blue chips, rose after Wall Street opened for trading and closed with a 1.01 percent gain, while the FTSE 100 index in London was up 0.72 percent.

German 10-year bonds, the benchmark for Europe, were up 7 basis points at 2.257 percent. United States 10-year Treasury securities were up 7 basis points at 1.95 percent.

The dollar gained against other major currencies. The euro slid to $1.3242 from $1.3346 late Thursday, while the British pound dropped to $1.5480 from $1.5496. The dollar rose to 77.63 yen from 77.12 yen, and to 0.9290 Swiss francs from 0.9196 francs.